Infinite DC Journeys: Dames of Gotham
by RetroWriter2012
Summary: For Barry Allen and Kara Danvers, traveling between alternate Earths comes as a walk in the park. But the unconventional means of which they have arrived in a chaotic realm that inhabits its own twisted version of Gotham City, before the rise of Batman, leaves the two superheroes desperate to return home as soon as possible.
1. Part One

**Part One**

Barry Allen awoke with a gasp.

Jolting himself into an upright position, he looked down at himself to see that he was still wearing his Flash suit; the helmet still left retracted from his head, exposing his true identity.

Lying beside him was Kara Danvers, his friend from an alternate Earth where she was popularly known by her moniker, "Supergirl."

"Kara," he called to her, nudging her shoulder as many times it took to wake her.

She finally did in the same manner as Barry.

"W-What?!" She uttered in a daze. "What happened?!"

Barry shook his head with great uncertainty. "I…don't know. Last thing I remember was being in Min's T.A.R.D.I.S., heading back home to our Earths, and then everything _literally_ went hazy."

The two heroes stood up, looking over the rooftop structure they found themselves atop of and then to the bleak-looking skyline ahead of them.

"This isn't Central City," Barry noted.

"Neither National City," Kara stated.

"No, it's _Gotham_ City…and you two weirdoes are on private property."

Barry and Kara reflected to the teenaged voice griping at them.

There stood a girl with pale skin, short curly chestnut hair, and green eyes. She looked a bit grungy in a leather biker jacket, ripped jeans, knee-high boots, fingerless biker gloves, and a dark gray hoodie with steampunk-style goggles pushed up in her hair.

"W-We're sorry," Barry stammered. "We'll be on our way."

"Yeah," the girl begrudgingly muttered. "Go somewhere else to do your weird cosplay."

Barry was already on his way out, yet Kara remained firm where she stood.

"Wait," she said, addressing the girl. "Did you say we're in Gotham City?"

The girl frowned questionably at her. "What plane did _you_ jump out of? Of course, this is Gotham City."

"This is where my cousin's friend lives," Kara beamed. "Bruce Wayne."

"You think he can help us?" Barry asked her.

"Oh, I _know_ he will," Kara vouched. "The only problem now is finding where he lives…specifically in _this_ Earth."

"Yo, weirdoes!" The girl redirected their attention back on her. "Not that I care whatever kinky business you got going on, but if you're lookin' for Bruce, I know where you can find him. There's just one thing you've got to do."

Barry accepted with a casual shrug. "Sure. What is it?"

"Change out of those ridiculous Halloween costumes," the girl demanded. "I don't wanna be caught dead walking the streets with you guys wearing all that."

* * *

Having a change of suitable street clothes, provided by their new friend Selina Kyle, Barry and Kara were brought to Wayne Manor, home of Bruce Wayne.

With Selina's help, they snuck right in.

No one appeared to be home at first, but then they heard loud grunts from one of the adjoining rooms.

"Is that someone being attacked?" Barry wondered.

"Could be," Selina said. "Happens _a lot_ here."

Not taking any chances, Barry and Kara rushed ahead, with a reluctant Selina following them close behind.

Stumbling in the manor's greenhouse, they found a man fighting a young boy.

Without a second thought, Barry super sped across the room, tackling the man away from the boy and pinning him to the floor.

Stunned by the spectacle of his metahuman abilities, Selina asked, "How did you just move like that?!"

The young boy Barry saved even asked, "A-Are you one of Indian Hill's experiments?"

"Indian _what_?!" A baffled Barry said. "I'm sorry for surprising you guys like this, but I just couldn't stand by while this man was attacking a kid."

"On the contrary, my dear young fellow," the man told Barry in a thick English accent. "Master Bruce and I were merely training. So, if you wouldn't mind getting your knee off my spleen."

Barry did as the man requested, even helping him back on his feet.

"Good show," he said before offering his hand to Barry. "Alfred Pennyworth, at your service."

"Barry Allen," the speedster returned.

The young boy, who they realized to be Bruce Wayne, addressed to Selina, "Who are these people?"

"I thought I knew, up 'til now," a shell-shocked Selina responded.

"Bruce?" Kara referred to the boy. " _You're_ Bruce Wayne?"

"Yes," he confirmed. "Who are you?"

"I'm Kara Danvers," she said. "You're a friend of my cousin…Superman?"

Bruce cringed at the name. "Who?!"

* * *

In a dim, smoky alleyway outside Gotham's hottest nightclub, "Club Infinite," the club owners – the Curtsinger Sisters – delightedly monitored the brutal assault of a Puerto Rican hoodlum named Basco by their heavies.

Basco was sent by Barbara Kean and Tabitha Galavan to deliver a message: "Close down business or we'll close it _for_ ya!"

Club Infinite was The Sirens' biggest competition, and it was dampening Kean and Galavan's operations.

However, the Curtsinger Sisters did not take kindly to threats.

This prompted the beat down Basco currently suffered.

After nearly beaten to a bloody pulp, the elder Curtsinger sister called off her heavies and asked the hoodlum, "Now what're you gonna go back and tell that homicidal ex-housewife?"

His jaw practically shattered, Basco relayed the new message:

"Min and Maureen Curtsinger are the _new_ Dames of Gotham, and your time's up."

Min Curtsinger smiled with satisfaction. "Now apologize for not being a gentleman when you so _rudely_ waltzed into our establishment."

"I'm s-sorry for n-not being a g-gentleman," Basco stammered.

"When you so _rudely_ waltzed into our establishment?"

"W-When I so _rudely_ waltzed into y-your establishment."

Min petted his head like a dog. "Good boy."

"Now break his legs, boys," Maureen ordered the heavies, who proceeded on with the command, breaking every bone in the hoodlum's lower appendages with aluminum bats. The Curtsinger Sisters watched on flippantly.


	2. Part Two

**Part Two**

Barry and Kara explained their entire story to Bruce, Selina, and Alfred over some tea. They left out no details to how they got to where they currently were in Wayne Manor, Gotham, or that Earth altogether.

Of course, Selina couldn't believe a word of it.

"Parallel Earths, aliens from other planets…you really expect us to swallow all that _Star Trek_ stuff?"

"Is it any harder to believe than what's been happening around Gotham?" Bruce challenged her. "Theo Galavan and Jerome coming back from death, Ivy growing from a child to a full-grown adult overnight, Victor Fries' condition…"

"Alright, alright," Selina caved. "I get what you're saying."

"So how do you two suppose on returning back to whatever it is you come from?" Alfred inquired, while pouring Kara a fresh pot.

Barry shook his head, shrugging. "If it were just me here, it'd be as easy as running fast enough to create a breach back into my world. But Kara and I arrived by more complicated means. A friend of ours named Min has a machine that—"

"Min? Like as in 'Min Curtsinger'?!" Selina reacted.

"Yeah," Barry confirmed. "You know her?"

Selina scoffed. "Who _doesn't_ know the most ruthless club owner in Gotham and her equally insane sister, Maureen?"

The other name Selina mentioned was well familiar to Barry and Kara.

It was one of the regenerations of Neas, the Time Lord that had involved them in the most recent interdimensional conflict they barely managed to survive. Now Selina was telling them that both Gallifreyans – ones that saved all of the multiverse – were dangerous gangsters?

None of it made any sense.

"The Curtsinger Sisters run their club, 'Club Infinite,' on the east side of Gotham," Selina said. "It's in serious competition with Sirens, a club run by Barbara Kean and Tabitha Galavan. They pretty much threaten each other into shutting the other club down every week."

"Can you take us to 'Club Infinite'?" Kara requested.

Selina refrained from bursting with laughter. "No one just _walks_ into Club Infinite and expect to walk out with their limbs intact. Either of you could get hurt or even killed." She then reconsidered her warning upon realizing who and what she was talking to. "But you guys clearly don't have to worry about that, having super speed and being bulletproof. So…why not?"

"I'll go with you," Bruce boldly volunteered.

"Out of the bloody question!" Alfred stormed. "Master Bruce, did you not hear what Miss Kyle just said about this dreadful nightclub?"

"I know, Alfred," Bruce said, "but I can't explain this connection I feel to Barry and Kara. It's like I'm meant to help them in whatever way I can. Just please let me do this…let me help them."

* * *

Club Infinite was exactly as Selina described.

Crowded with the most ruthless killers, thieves, rapists, and other varieties of scum in Gotham City.

They were barely able to get past the tall, bald, and muscled bouncer at the front door until Kara snatched the large man's pinkie finger with enough superhuman force to bring him to his knees.

"Suddenly I'm not so trepid of our safety with _her_ around," Alfred told Bruce.

"There are a lot of punks I know off the streets here," Selina informed. "Just stay close to me, and I'll get us to the sisters. After that, I just hope you guys can pull off whatever it is you got planned."

She approached one of the heavies in the club that doubled as security.

"The Sirens sent us," she told him. "They want to negotiate a truce."

Her con worked. The heavy led them to the upstairs office of Min and Maureen Curtsinger, from where the sisters overlooked their business through a wide, plate glass window.

Sure enough, the sisters were the Time Lords Barry and Kara knew.

Min sat in a comfortable leather chair at a fancy glass desk, which Maureen sat on.

Barry attempted to approach them, only to be held back by a heavy.

"Min…Maureen…it's us – Barry and Kara!"

"The Flash and Supergirl?" Kara added, believing their superhero monikers could draw some sense in the two women.

The Curtsinger Sisters silently looked to each other, frowning in question.

After a brief moment, Min ultimately commanded to their security, "Boys, take our guests back out to the alley and show them how we deal with people who _think_ they know who we are."

One of the heavies grabbed Kara by her arms in an effort to force her out.

He quickly discovered how difficult that was going to be, as soon as he felt the inhuman amount of resistance her body gave. Before he knew it, Kara had lifted him right off his feet and tossed him against the nearest wall, leaving a massive dent.

Barry took down the other five heavies, bolting throughout the room and knocking each and every one out.

The display of their unearthly powers was enough to bring Min and Maureen to their feet.

"Well, we have a couple of Indian Hill freaks in our establishment," Maureen said.

"This changes _everything_ ," Min stated. "How would you two like to work for us?"

"We don't want a job," Barry refused.

"We just want our friends back," Kara clarified. "You two are our only way back. We need to return to our Earths where we belong."

Maureen bafflingly scowled. "What're you talkin' abo—?"

The exchange stopped once they heard gunshots ringing over the loud music.

Looking out the window, they saw police officers in S.W.A.T. gear amassing the dance floor and arresting every single patron on the spot.

Bruce recognized the two men leading the raid: "That's Detective Gordon and Commissioner Bullock!"

Min and Maureen dashed over to a steel cabinet at one corner of the office.

From inside the cabinet, they retrieved some heavy artillery.

"What're you doing?!" A shocked Barry asked.

"What does it look like, pretty boy?" Min remarked. "We're gonna blow those pigs back to the sty they wallowed from!"

"No," blurted Kara, equally as unnerved by this uncharacteristic act. "This isn't who you are! Don't make this mistake!"

"There ain't gonna be any mistakes, as long as we aim for the eyes," said Maureen, who began to take aim for Gordon and Bullock through the office window, alongside Min.

Unwilling to let the amnesiac Time Lords go through with the murder of two cops, Kara both moved faster than the blink of an eye just as Min and Maureen fired.

Kara brought herself in the bullets' path, allowing them to strike at her impenetrable body, albeit at the cost of her clothes. Barry went in behind Min and Maureen, bashing their heads together to knock them out cold.

"We need to get out of here before Gordon or Bullock finds us," Selina insisted. "C'mon. There's a rear entrance we can take out to the back alley."

Taking the unconscious Min and Maureen with them, they escaped through the rear entrance that Selina led them to. Arriving at the back alley, they found blood splattered on the concrete and brick walls – evidence of the Curtsinger Sisters' method of getting their message across.

"Don't move!"

A GCPD officer they failed to see on their way out had cornered them, his handgun fixated right on them.

"It's one guy," Selina whispered. "We can take him."

"No," Barry denied. "That's not how we do things where we come from."

As the GCPD officer approached, an object flew across his line of sight, embedding itself into the wall beside him.

Examining it, he verified it to be some kind of specialized arrow.

He soon regretted hovering his face close to it when a steady stream of knockout gas was emitted, putting him to sleep.

Barry could think of only one man who fired arrows like that.

From the shadows emerged a green hooded figure brandishing a bow.

"Oliver?" Barry identified the stranger as his friend from his own Earth, best known by the vigilante signature "Green Arrow."

"We need to talk," Oliver told the group.


	3. Part Three

**Part Three**

Barry's head spun with so many questions upon encountering Oliver Queen within the alternate Earth they were trapped. He didn't have time to ask them with Gotham's police force on their tail.

Oliver led them to a junkyard off the city limits.

Much to Barry and Kara's surprise, a Type-Z T.A.R.D.I.S. stood among the junk.

"What is _that_ thing?!" Selena grimaced at the alien object.

"A spaceship," Kara answered, though it wasn't what Selena had anticipated.

"There's no way we can get in," Barry told Oliver. "Not without a genetic handprint from one of _these_ two." He indicated the unconscious bodies of Min and Maureen he and Kara carted all the way there.

Oliver shook his head. "Won't work. Their genetic code has been altered."

"What?" Barry uttered in baffling disbelief. "How do you know?"

"Because _she_ told me," Oliver nodded towards Maureen, right before he placed the palm of his hand on the black solid structure of the Type-Z.

Barry and Kara were astonished to see it open for him.

"How did you do that?" Kara asked him.

"My gauntlets have been amplified with a Time Lord bio signature," Oliver explained while walking in with the group.

Selena was instantly stunned, stepping over the threshold.

"How is this thing _bigger on the inside_ when it was all flat and stuff on the inside?!"

Bruce shared her amazement. "This is…incredible!"

"I feel oddly at home here," Alfred claimed.

After setting Min and Maureen down in the seats on the console platform, Barry went right away to questioning Oliver: "O.K. Time to spill, Ollie. How did you get here to this Earth in the T.A.R.D.I.S.?"

Oliver chuckled. "You know, on any other day, that would've sounded like another cheesy pop culture reference Felicity or Curtis would've made. If they were here right now, they would flip at how real this all is."

"Yeah, so would Cisco," a smirking Barry concurred.

"And Winn," Kara added.

Nearly losing track of the conversation, Oliver returned, "So I was on patrol with John and Felicity when I found a big, black rectangular piece of art deco that materialized from nowhere in the middle of the street. I wasn't sure if I was drawn to it or it _drew_ me in, but the next thing I realized is that I'm in another universe…and then _this_ comes up."

He went to the console, pressing a specific button with a sticky note attached to it that read, "Press me."

Oliver did just that, and a holographic image was projected from the console.

It was one of Maureen.

"This is security protocol 712," the hologram began. "For the one receiving this message, listen carefully. My name is Maureen, and I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. You are standing in my Type-Z T.A.R.D.I.S., short for 'Time And Relative Dimension In Space,' emphasis on 'dimension.' I pre-programmed it to take you to a particular point in time and space where your services will be required. My father's T.A.R.D.I.S. was wiped out by the Nuage."

The view screen across the console platform sparked on, displaying an image of a fiery haze shrouded within a swirling blue vortex that Barry and Kara knew as the infinite dimensional corridor.

"The Nuage is an interdimensional cloud generated from the infinite dimensional corridor capable of altering reality or the physiology of anything it touches – mainly beings that have prolonged exposure to time vortexes or dimensional corridors, such as Time Lords," Maureen's hologram continued. "I received a distress signal that brought me to this dimension, but as soon as I arrived, I also became a victim to the Nuage. The only way to reverse the Nuage's effects is by using the Chameleon Arch, restoring the individual's essence to them."

Following the Maureen hologram's instruction, the group proceeded to use the Chameleon Arch headset on Maureen herself.

The process was unmistakably painful.

Maureen woke out of her unconsciousness, screaming in agony as she underwent the internal transformation back into her Time Lord physiology.

The headset sizzled and smoked on her head.

"Maureen?" Kara said. "Are you okay?"

"I don't think I'll ever _be_ bloody okay," the Time Lady remorsefully replied, back to her normal senses. "All those men and women Pop and I killed and tortured to do whatever we wanted…"

"None of that was your fault," Barry reassured her. "You were a totally different person when all of it went down."

"Doesn't change the fact that _I_ committed those crimes," Maureen refuted. "We need to get Pop back to her usual self before _she_ has to live the nightmare any further."

Their focus then shifted to Min, who was _supposed_ to have been sitting beside Maureen the entire time; however, no one was sitting there. Instead, a fully conscious Min stood off the platform, holding the group at gunpoint near the opened doors of the T.A.R.D.I.S.

"Where am I?!" She furiously bellowed. "Is this another nightclub? You tryin' to muscle in your own establishment?!"

Maureen calmly stood with her hands held in protest.

"Pop, take it easy. You're under the influence of the Nuage."

"The _what_?!" Min exclaimed, even more confused. "What've these _freaks_ done to you, sis?! You're actin' like somebody I don't even know!"

Oliver figured a distraction was needed to draw them out of Min's line of fire.

He reactivated Maureen's holographic message, bringing the image up directly near Min. As expected, she reacted to the technological scare, firing her gun at the hologram to no avail. What he had _not_ expected was for her to bolt out of the T.A.R.D.I.S. before either he, Barry, or Kara had a chance to react.

The three heroes gave chase.

In their exit, they ran across what they perceived to be a dense evening fog, which made them lose track of Min afterward.

"Kara, we need eyes in the sky," Oliver directed.

"Got it," Kara acknowledged.

She leapt into the air, expecting to have been twenty feet thereafter.

Instead, she collapsed right onto the concrete.

"What the…?!"

Standing upright, she noticed how different she felt.

She struggled to generate a blast of heat vision from her eyes, but nothing came out. "I've lost my powers," she concluded in fear.

Barry tested his super speed, only to find himself running at the average human velocity. "Same here," he panicked, looking back towards the path they ran from Maureen's T.A.R.D.I.S. "That fog we ran through…it was the Nuage. And it's nullified our powers!"

All of the sudden, the three heroes were swarmed by sirens and flashing blue and red lights – Jim Gordon, Harvey Bullock, and the rest of the G.C.P.D. had them surrounded, their guns trained right on them.

"Don't move!" Gordon charged. "You're under arrest!"


	4. Part Four

**Part Four**

From within the shadows of a nearby alley, Min watched Detectives Gordon and Bullock arrest three chumps – one of whom wearing a Robin Hood-style costume – which they handcuffed and placed in the back of a squad car.

"Where's Curtsinger?" She overheard Gordon ask his partner.

"No idea," Bullock replied. "She gave us the slip."

 _You darn right I did, fat boy_ , Min mentally taunted the acting commissioner.

"The _real_ question we should be asking, Jim, is who this anonymous source was that ratted out the Curtsinger sisters."

A fire ignited inside of Min upon hearing this.

There was no reason for her not to believe the "anonymous source" Bullock spoke about was Barbara Keen using her ex-fiancée to shut her club down.

As soon as Gordon, Bullock, and the rest of the G.C.P.D. departed from the scene, with their three detainees, Min went right to work in her quest for revenge. She gathered her club heavies (whatever ones that _weren't_ caught by the police) and any of her other contacts in the criminal underworld.

It was time to go to war with the Sirens.

* * *

"We've got to help them!"

Inside the Type-Z T.A.R.D.I.S., Bruce had watched the view screen along with Selina, Alfred, and Maureen, witnessing the unjustified arrest of Barry, Oliver, and Kara.

"What _can_ we do, Bruce?" Selina realistically questioned. "Gordon and that donut of a fake commissioner partner of his aren't going to believe the story of how we met those freaks. It's for the best that we just forget any of this ever happened."

"No," Maureen rejected. "The Nuage's getting stronger by the minute. It's only a matter of time before it tears apart your world."

"Who _are_ you anyway?" Selina asked her. "One minute, you're the most dangerous woman in Gotham next to Barbara Keen, and then the next, you're some alien from another planet."

Maureen nodded, smirking. "That's right. I'm an alien…the alien that's gonna save your bloody butt whether you want me to or not."

"Master Bruce! STOP!"

They heard Alfred cry out, failing to see why at first.

Then they noticed Bruce rushing out of the T.A.R.D.I.S., fueled by his unbearable desire to help clear the names of Barry, Kara, and Oliver.

He ran straight into a dense fog that covered most of the outside.

"Oh, no," Maureen gasped, rushing immediately to the controls to close the doors to her T.A.R.D.I.S. just before Alfred could have the chance to walk through them.

"What're you doing?!" She screamed to her. "Open those doors _now_!"

"I can't, mate," Maureen forbade. "The Nuage has engulfed the T.A.R.D.I.S., possibly picking up on the dimensional energy it's been emanating since it arrived here. I open those doors, and it rips the whole ship apart from the inside, along with _us_."

"But Bruce just walked out into that thing," Selina noted in her panic. "What'll happen to _him_?"

"Only one way to find out…"

Maureen switched to another feed on the view screen, one much closer to the hazy atmosphere encompassing the Type-Z.

They perceived the shape of a giant bat in the haze, taking off into the sky.

Selina jumped in fear of it. "Was that…Bruce?!"

"Dear me," Alfred whispered, unknowingly confirming Selina's suspicions. "I have to go after him."

"Are neither of you hearin' what I've been sayin'?!" Maureen griped. "You step into the Nuage, and it will _change_ you right down to your molecules! The safest place you can be is in this ship!"

"And Master Bruce?" Alfred concerned. "How do we help him?"

"By gettin' out of this junkyard," Maureen said, centering her attention on the T.A.R.D.I.S. controls.

She fought to dematerialize the Gallifreyan ship, contesting with the extraterrestrial element that prevented her from doing it.

* * *

Barry, Oliver, and Kara were detained together in the interrogation room at the G.C.P.D. station, waiting for Gordon and Bullock. Oliver's bow and arrows were confiscated, as well as his mask, which he figured was of no use anyway, being in a completely different universe.

He was more worried for Barry and Kara after being influenced by the Nuage.

"Anything come back for you guys?" He inquired.

Kara strained against the cuffs she was restrained to the table with. "Nothing," she verified. "If this were Kryptonite I was dealing with, I would've busted out of these handcuffs by now."

"Yeah, same here," Barry stated. "I can't vibrate out of mine."

Oliver desolately sighed. "No powers, no weapons. All that we have is Maureen and the T.A.R.D.I.S., which I _still_ can't believe I'm saying right now."

"These detectives are going to come in here any moment now," Barry indicated. "What're we gonna tell them?"

"Obviously, there's no simple way of explaining ourselves and our presence in Gotham to them," Oliver rationalized. "So, the best method of approaching this is playing it straight."

Gordon and Bullock arrived not a moment afterward.

"Alright," Bullock began the questioning. "Let's start with who you kids are and why you were stirring up trouble at the most ruthless nightclub this side of Gotham."

"We come from two separate Earths – or three, if you count the fact that I'm an alien from the planet Krypton," Kara blurted. "Barry is a speedster who can run so fast that he can travel through time, and Oliver shoots arrows and _never_ misses. Not very long ago, we teamed up to fight aliens called Dominators. And then, after that, Barry and I teamed up with other people from _other_ Earths to fight these creatures called Daleks. That's where we met our friends, Maureen and Min, who you know as the Curtsinger Sisters in this world. Only they're not gangsters, they're part of an extinct alien race called Time Lords, influenced by the Nuage, an interdimensional space cloud that alters reality and the people in it. And that's how we ended up here in Gotham…and then in Club Infinite…and, uh…here."

All eyes were frozen in disbelief on Kara, following her lengthy exposition.

"Not exactly what I meant by 'playing it straight,' Kara," Oliver murmured.

"O…kay?" Bullock awkwardly uttered. "I've seen a lot of _weird_ stuff happen in the city and yet none of it can come close to what you just said, kid."

With Kara's sudden outburst, Oliver was left with no other choice but to reason with the detectives: "Look, I know it all sounds far-fetched. A few years ago, I would've thought it was ridiculous, too. But it's the truth. We're not affiliated with any of the gangs of Gotham. There's a greater threat out there that this city needs to worry about."

"What threat do you mean?" Gordon asked him.

"Neither of you will believe what it is," Barry said.

"Is it even _more_ far-fetched than aliens from another planet?" A disbelieving Gordon queried.

Before the interrogation could chart into "sci-fi" territory, the procedure was interrupted by an officer that barged into the room and informed Gordon and Bullock, "We just got word on Barbara Keen and Min Curtsinger. Their gangs were spotted at the docks. Sounds like they're ready to go to war."

"Just what we need – another gang war," Bullock moaned, prior to instructing the officer, "Take these three yahoos back to their cell."

The officer carried out the acting commissioner's command.

"Detectives, you got to listen to us," Oliver shouted to the departing Bullock and Gordon. "Your city's in danger! We're _all_ in danger!"

Gordon and Bullock would have realized how true Oliver Queen was in his forewarning had they bothered to look towards Gotham's horizon. The Nuage increased in size and density, enveloping half of the city and erasing citizens from existence one-by-one.


	5. Part Five

**Part Five**

Barry, Oliver, and Kara were returned immediately to a holding cell occupied by convicts that started to harass Kara the instant she was put in. "Hey, baby," one of them called. "Why don't you bring your sweet self over here?"

Barry and Oliver, knowing that Kara was left vulnerable without her powers, stepped in front of her to ward off the lowlifes.

"Back off," Barry said. "She's with us."

"Well, she about to be wit _us_ now," the lowlife retorted. "So why don't _you_ back off, snowflake?"

Words turned to shoving, and Barry and Oliver verged on an all-out brawl with their cellmates.

That was until a strange alien noise reverberated within the cell.

A heavy humming, grinding noise.

Barry, Oliver, and Kara knew it as the welcoming sound of Maureen's T.A.R.D.I.S. It materialized inside their cell, terrifying the convicts, who backed themselves against the corner.

Selina appeared at the doorway. "Well, don't just stand there like morons, move your butts," she urged the three heroes, who showed no hesitation in following her command.

"Selina?"

The streetwise girl's concentration veered to one of the cowering convicts at the corner. "Ralph," she identified him.

"Hey, you bustin' your new friends out," Ralph said, "do the same for us, huh?"

Unfortunately for Ralph, Selina never held the man in such high regard.

"Sorry, Ralph. Not enough room."

And with that, she retreated back into the T.A.R.D.I.S., which had dematerialized out of the cell afterward.

Barry, Kara, and Oliver met with its Time Lady pilot at the controls.

"Had to practically fight the Nuage to materialize at the station," Maureen told them. "It's getting bigger and stronger by the second."

"Have you found a way to stop it?" Oliver asked.

"I think that I have, but it's a bit drastic," Maureen confirmed. "It involves opening a rift that will suck the cloud back into the infinite dimensional corridor. But, right now, I'm more bothered with findin' my father, who still thinks she's a ruthless Gotham City gang leader."

"One of the officers back in the station mentioned a gang war she's going to be in with the Sirens," Kara alerted.

"We _can't_ let that happen," Maureen resolutely declared.

Urgently, she brought her T.A.R.D.I.S. out of the dimensional corridor.

* * *

Leading their men, including Butch Gilzean, Barbara and Tabitha confronted Min Curtsinger and her heavies by the Gotham City docks. Both gangs were armed with enough artillery to ensure a total bloodbath.

"Where's your lil' sissy?" Barbara taunted Min. "She chickened out on you?"

Her mocking made Min's trigger finger that much itchier.

"Me and my boys can take you, your little dominatrix, and the human pit-bull all on our own," Min disputed.

Barbara grinned in sinister glee. "Take her down," she ordered her gang.

The war was just about to begin before a new faction busted into the scene.

"G.C.P.D.! FREEZE!"

Gordon, Bullock, and the rest of the police force raided the confrontation.

Their presence, however, only encouraged _more_ violence as the gangs opened fire on them and each other.

"Geez Louise," Bullock exclaimed. "Can this night get any crazier?!"

In response to the acting commissioner's rhetorical inquiry, a large dark figure shaped like a bat dropped right in the middle of the deadly conflict, engaging in fierce combat with thugs in both Min and the Sirens' gangs.

Gordon and Bullock witnessed the costumed vigilante's fast-as-lightning moves in complete awe.

"Is that Theo Galavan back from the dead… _again_?!" Bullock questioned.

"No," Gordon negated. "Don't remember Galavan looking like a giant bat."

Suddenly, in the midst of all the chaos that erupted at the docks, Gordon and Bullock detected a strange grinding noise in the air, followed by the bizarre arrival of a tall, rectangular black solid out of thin air.

"Alright," a befuddled Bullock gaped. " _That's_ hands-down the weirdest thing here right now."

Doors formed on the solid, permitting the emergence of Oliver Queen from the alien spacecraft. Armed once again with his bow and arrow, the emerald archer subjugated most of the thugs by shooting for their arms and legs.

When he reached Min, he froze in place, his arrow trained on her.

Likewise, she had him at gunpoint, initiating a standoff between them.

"This isn't you, Min," Oliver told her.

"You don't even _know_ me, Robin Hood."

"You're right, I don't. But my friends do, and that's good enough reason for me to convince you to come with us."

"You freaks took my sister from me! I should _kill_ you for that! And I think I will!"

Oliver tensed, seeing her finger hug up on the trigger.

Before Min could fire, she felt something clamp down on her head.

"What the—?!"

Her body was abruptly overcome with paralyzing agony, from her head straight down to her toes, and she fell into deep unconsciousness.

She collapsed into the waiting arms of Barry Allen, who was successful in creeping up behind Min, placing a portable version of the Chameleon Arch on her head, and activating it.

He and Oliver worked without delay in getting her back in the T.A.R.D.I.S.

On their way, they passed Alfred, who disembarked from the Gallifreyan ship long enough to watch the bat-shaped man that he knew to be Bruce Wayne vanquishing the remaining thugs with effortless combat expertise.

"Bruce," he called.

The man looked his way, a deep glare of recognition penetrating beneath a frightening black cowl. Alfred was struck by it; he knew those eyes to be Bruce's, yet they were far different…more focused…more intimidating…more matured.

A smoke bomb was thrown to the ground by the batman, fumigating the area and sanctioning him to flee the scene unnoticed.

"Alfred," Maureen beckoned, sticking her upper body out through the doors of her T.A.R.D.I.S. to see the flummoxed butler staring at an empty cloud, which thankfully wasn't the Nuage…at least for now. "Alfred, c'mon! We have to get outta here!"

Snapping himself out of his trance, Alfred returned inside the ship.

It dematerialized to the audience of an overwhelmed Gordon and Bullock.

"What just happened here, Jim?"

* * *

Moments passed since the frenzied situation at the Gotham docks.

Safe inside Maureen's T.A.R.D.I.S., Min lied unconscious in one of the console platform seats, while Barry removed the smoking portable Chameleon Arch headset off her head.

Maureen utilized the functions of her Gallifreyan ship to open a temporary, stable rift above Gotham City, vacuuming the Nuage out of the city's atmosphere and dispersing it back into the infinite dimensional corridor.

"Still can't believe that was Bruce we saw back there," Selina contemplated, feeling as distraught as Alfred. "He's gonna be back to normal with that Nuage thing gone now, right?"

"Of course," Maureen assured. "The effects are temporary. He should be back to himself within a few months."

"A few months?!" Selina cried out in disbelief.

"Hey, the streets of Gotham will be a whole lot safer with him out there," Maureen noted.

Neither Alfred nor Selina could argue with that logic – not after what they saw Bruce was capable of as the batman. Maureen dropped them off back to Wayne Manor and, after an exchange of farewells, returned into the infinite dimensional corridor with Barry, Oliver, Kara, and Min.

"Now there's just the problem with Barry and me getting our powers back," Kara despondently said.

"Yeah, when or _if_ they'll ever return," Barry added in the same manner.

"Oh, I think I have the perfect solution," Maureen addressed, retrieving the Chameleon Arch headset from Barry. "It'll only take a bit of reprogramming each of your biological structures."

Barry and Kara gulped, neither thrilled to undergo the painful procedure.

The team then heard groaning near them, turning to see Min finally regaining consciousness and her normal senses.

"Pop," Maureen approached her. "You okay?"

Rubbing the back of her head, Min replied, "I feel worse from guilt than pain."

"I know the feeling," Maureen shared in the remorse. "But none of it was your fault any more than it was mine."

"I'll try to keep telling myself that," an unconvinced Min said. "In the meantime, I'll just rack it up as another reason why I have to travel alone. I only end up hurting the people I care about when they're around me."

As much as it was in Maureen's yearning to boost back her father's self-esteem, she understood what Min meant. There was still much culpability in this incarnation of the Time Lord known on Gallifrey as "The Tinkerer." It was not only from the Time War, but her recent abandonment of Gen, a past regeneration of Maureen's.

Sadly, she had to oblige to Min's request, returning her to the last known destination of her Type-X T.A.R.D.I.S.

And so Min was left to journey the infinite D.C. alone.


End file.
